1. Field of the Invention
This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/127,846 filed on a May 12, 2005, which was a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/109,038 filed on Apr. 19, 2005, currently under allowance, and of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/109,069, filed on Apr. 19, 2005, which were a continuations of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/101,604, filed on Apr. 7,2005. This invention relates to a Solution Builder Wizard that utilizes templates and interfaces with predefined intelligence to allow speedy assembly of various software components into one cohesive product form, and further to prepare customary documentation to accompany this product form as often required by service contracts, for quality testing, and for maintenance of the product.
2. Background of the Invention
Recently, a shift has occurred among enterprise computing supplies to address “vertical markets”. These “solutions” targeted to the specific needs, business processes, and problems for a certain industry, such as insurance claim processing, health care insurance filing, mortgage application handling, etc. Industry solutions often consists of one or more operating systems and middleware products that are packaged along with customized, industry specific, data, and code that are installed and configured to function as one cohesive business solution. There are many software and consulting firms who are focused on implementing vertical industry solutions using a collection of disparate products produced by a wide array of vendors.
To implement a vertical industry solution, a single expert is not sufficient to complete the project because it requires expert level skills and knowledge of such a wide array of products, systems, platforms, configurations, options, protocols, etc. Further, all of these different components must integrated and cooperate with each other in specific, often proprietary ways.
As a result, a team of specialists are usually required to install and deploy the entire project. To mitigate risk, customers often request that a prototype or proof of concept system be installed or demonstrated in order to provide concrete evidence of viability of the solution, and of the business value of the solution, prior to purchase.
This places much engineering and development work up front and before a formal purchase order is issued, which increases the financial risk to the supplier or suppliers. In some cases, it can take eight weeks or even more to gather requirements, and to create a prototype that solves the customer's problems. Then, it can take months to implement and test a prototype, including producing some sort of data which simulates various scenarios and test cases.
This “up front” effort requires a massive amount of time and expenditures in some cases. Because it lasts so long, there is a very real possibility that components (e.g. software applications, operating systems, etc.) will be revised and patched, so the final configuration, if ordered, will have unknown characteristics as the newer releases and patches will also have to be integrated and tested before formal deployment.
Thus, the processes currently employed in the industry place a heavy risk and financial burden on the supplier prior to a sale being completed, which is reflected in the pricing of the final systems to the customers, the increased cost of which must be either absorbed by the customers or passed on to their own clients. In either situation, the customer may either experience reduced profitability, reduced ability to compete on price, or both.
Typically, when a computing solution is produced incorporating multiple software products, software tools and application programs, a comprehensive package of all the related documents such as installation guides, user guides, and administration guides are bundled together, and shipped to the client for use or archival. This process is manually completed, and is often labor intensive. Further, in some situations, not all of the optional components within a family of products are purchased, used, or licensed, which case, excessive paper documents are delivered to users even when it is not applicable to the specific client or project. Moreover, solutions developers often spend an exorbitant amount of time sorting and scanning through all the available documentation that may not even be applicable to the problems at hand.